Picket-fastener for wire fences.



No. 637,634. P'atn td-Nov. 2|, I899.

a n. N. MARTZ. PICKET FASTENER FOR WIRE FENCES.

Application filed Dec. 10, 1898.)

(No Model.

Wii asses m: Nonms Pncns co., m orouma, W SH NGTON. n. c.

NITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

RANDOLPH N. MARTZ, or FREDERICK, MARYLAND.

PlCKET-FASTENER FOR WIRE FENCES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 637,634, dated November 21, 1899. Application filed December 10,1898. Serial No. 698,908. (No model.)

T at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, RANDOLPH N. MARTZ,

' a citizen of the United States, residing at Frederick, in the county of Frederick and State of Maryland, have invented a new and useful Picket-Fastener for Wire Fences, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to improvements in picket-fasteners for Wire fences.

The object of the present invention is to improve the construction of picket-fasteners for wire fences and to provide a simple, inexpensive, and efficient one adapted to secure a picket firmly to a number of fence-wires without splitting it.

I-Ieretofore picket-fasteners which extend horizontally around the picket and secure the same to a fence-wire have been provided with a central loop which passes through a perforation or bore of the picket and engages the fence-wire at a point between the ends of the fastener; but such fasteners have exerted considerable lateral strain on the pickets, so that when the latter are applied to a fence and are punctured for a considerable number of wires they are exceedingly liable to split in half longitudinally when the fence is subjected to strain or to the weather. A further object of the invention is to enable such a central loop to be employed without exerting on the picket a separating strain tending to tear the picket apart. 7

The invention consists in the construction and novel combination and arrangements of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and pointed out in the claim hereto appended.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a fence provided with picket-fasteners constructed in accordance with this invention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view illustrating the manner of securing a picket to a fence-wire. Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view of one of thepicket-fasteners.

Like numerals of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawlugs.

l designates a picket constructed of wood and secured to horizontal fence-wires 2 by fasteners 3, each constructed of a single piece of wire extending around the side edges and back of the pickets and having its terminals 4: coiled around the fence-wire 2, which extends across the front face of the picket. The end coils of the picket-fastener are located at opposite sides of the picket, which 'is provided at a point between its edges with a central horizontal perforation or bore 5, and arranged therein is a central stem 6, formed by twisting the wire, and provided with an eye 7, which embraces the fence-wire and which is arranged at the front face of the picket. In applying the wire fastener to the picket it is doubled at its center and passed through the perforation of the picket, the fence-wire being arranged in the loop formed by doubling the wire, and the latter is then twisted to form the stem and the eye. The twisted stem extends to the rear face of the picket, and the side portions of the fastener, made by the twisting of the terminals of the wire around the longitudinal fence-wire, are thereby connected and made practically continuous around the back of the picket and may be drawn sufficiently tight against the side edges of the same to embed them therein without exerting any strain tending to tear the picket apart or split it longitudinally. The twisting of the stem equalizes the strain, so that there is no more tendency to split the picket than there is in a fastener which sim ply extends around the back and sides of a picket without passing through the same. The fence-wires may be arranged at short intervals and the pickets may be constructed of thin material, and there will be no tendency of the pickets to split longitudinally when the fence is subjected to a downward strain. Also the side portions of the picket-fastener serve to compress the fiber of the wood and force the same inward toward the center, and thereby enable the picket to resist strain which would otherwise split it.

The invention has the following advan* tages: The picket-fastener, which is simple and inexpensive in construction, is designed especially for securing wooden pickets to wire fences having a large number of horizontal fence wires or strands, and it is capa ble of enabling thin pickets to be employed and perforated at short intervals without liability of splitting, as it prevents any outward or separating strain and tends to com press the fiber of the wood and bind the same more firmly together.

What is claimed is In a device of the class described, the combination with a fence-wire, and a wooden picket having a perforation, of a fastener constructed of wire and passing around the back and sides of the picket and secured at its ends to the fence-wire,said fastener being provided at its center with a stem extending through the perforation of the picket and provided with an eye to receive \the fence-wire, said stem being twisted from the front face of the picket to the rear face thereof and connecting the rear portions of the fastener and making the same practically continuous across the back of the picket, whereby it is adapted to relieve the picket of a separating or bursting strain and is caused to compress the picket, substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

RANDOLPH N. MARTZ. 

